Tom Wesselmann - 20th Century & Contemporary Art Day Sale London Wednesday, March 6, 2019 | Phillips

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  • Provenance

    Gifted by the artist to Arnie Langer, New York
    Thence by descent
    Private Collection (acquired from the above in 2016)
    Sotheby's, Online, 6 March 2018, lot 431
    Acquired at the above sale by the present owner

  • Artist Biography

    Tom Wesselmann

    American • 1931 - 2004

    As a former cartoonist and leading figure of the Pop Art movement, Tom Wesselmann spent many years of his life repurposing popular imagery to produce small to large-scale works that burst with color. Active at a time when artists were moving away from the realism of figurative painting and growing increasingly interested in abstraction, Wesselmann opted for an antithetical approach: He took elements of city life that were both sensual and practical and represented them in a way that mirrored Roy Lichtenstein and Andy Warhol's own methodologies.

    Wesselmann considered pop culture objects as exclusively visual elements and incorporated them in his works as pure containers of bold color. This color palette became the foundation for his now-iconic suggestive figurative canvases, often depicting reclining nudes or women's lips balancing a cigarette.

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128

Study for Nude Collage Edition

signed, dedicated and dated 'For Arnie Tom Wesselmann 70' lower left edge
thinned Liquitex and pencil on ragboard
10.2 x 21.6 cm (4 x 8 1/2 in.)
Executed in 1970.

Estimate
£15,000 - 20,000 

Sold for £27,500

Contact Specialist
Tamila Kerimova
Specialist, Head of Day Sale
+ 44 20 7318 4065
tkerimova@phillips.com

20th Century & Contemporary Art Day Sale

London Auction 8 March 2019